Random musings on history, politics, and more

Archive for October 27th, 2009

There’s an interesting article this week about a new Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) report on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and some of the issues the Bureau faces in reviewing and processing evidence. One of the areas that is apparently singled out in the IG report is the review – or lack thereof – of audio recordings gathered as part of investigations.

It’s not clear what percentage of the audio recordings are telephone wiretaps, but it’s probably a fair percentage – and given that the total unreviewed audio runs to over a million hours, even a small percentage is, objectively, a lot of recordings.

This morning, when the alarm went off, I was treated – and I use the term very loosely – to some public radio personality telephoning, on-air, various health professionals around the country and doing thirty-second interviews about the swine flu – excuse me, H1N1 – pandemic and the mass vaccination that’s underway. It was being covered with a mix of excitement – think the morning of a presidential election – and hysteria – think any big security scare immediately after 9/11. The guy, whomever he was (hey, I had just woken up…) was breathless with excitement as nurses and doctors and other people from around the country told him the same thing over and over again: there’s nowhere near enough vaccine to go around, and the public is pretty damned alarmed, oh noes.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the nine begathon months this year for the local public radio station, so it could have been worse – people could have been imploring me over and over and over again to give them money.

Laying there in bed, half awake, a needy kitty on my chest demanding attention, and the H1N1 hysteria temporarily muted thanks to the snooze button, I got to thinking…Read the rest of this entry »